Timeonabike wrote:Anyone out there tried using an IR camera or modified video camera for picking up number plates at night?Looks like it'd be pretty easy to modify one, but not sure if the results would be worth it?

I can see myself destroying a cheap and nasty one to find out.

Cheers

Time

I wouldn't bother. Even expensive CCTV cameras employing IR can only see basic figures and faces up to 10m. Add a reflective surface and you'll find it incredibly hard to decipher characters on the plate. You would require a serious sensor and cheap portable cameras just won't cope.

Summernight wrote:Glad the replacement has finally come for you, DarkElf. I've been very pleased with my replacement with no glitches to date. When received it I immediately did the manual update and fixed my settings to how I wanted it.

My replacement has also worked flawlessly. I also did the update straight away.

Timeonabike wrote:Anyone out there tried using an IR camera or modified video camera for picking up number plates at night?Looks like it'd be pretty easy to modify one, but not sure if the results would be worth it?

I can see myself destroying a cheap and nasty one to find out.

Cheers

Time

I wouldn't bother. Even expensive CCTV cameras employing IR can only see basic figures and faces up to 10m. Add a reflective surface and you'll find it incredibly hard to decipher characters on the plate. You would require a serious sensor and cheap portable cameras just won't cope.

It'll pick the car up though.

But with the 808 #16 A? Lens. you might get one frame just before impact. Juggled brightness and contrast in VLC.Just kidding, pulled up behind me at the lights. Yes I actually stopped.This is the same vehicle going past after the lights. Add movement and you don't have a hope. No amount of tweaking or magnification would give me a plate.PS that's a helmet mounted 808 D Lens

Summernight wrote:Glad the replacement has finally come for you, DarkElf. I've been very pleased with my replacement with no glitches to date. When received it I immediately did the manual update and fixed my settings to how I wanted it.

My replacement has also worked flawlessly. I also did the update straight away.

I spoke too soon. It may have charging problems as well <sigh>

That's not good.

What exactly seems to be wrong with it this time?I've had one freeze since I got the replacement camera. Also, the battery time doesn't seem to correctly reflect the actual amount of time left in the camera, although I've attached the battery bacpac now so don't have to fuss over it as much.

Timeonabike wrote:Anyone out there tried using an IR camera or modified video camera for picking up number plates at night?Looks like it'd be pretty easy to modify one, but not sure if the results would be worth it?

I can see myself destroying a cheap and nasty one to find out.

Cheers

Time

I wouldn't bother. Even expensive CCTV cameras employing IR can only see basic figures and faces up to 10m. Add a reflective surface and you'll find it incredibly hard to decipher characters on the plate. You would require a serious sensor and cheap portable cameras just won't cope.

It'll pick the car up though.

But with the 808 #16 A? Lens. you might get one frame just before impact. Juggled brightness and contrast in VLC.Just kidding, pulled up behind me at the lights. Yes I actually stopped.This is the same vehicle going past after the lights. Add movement and you don't have a hope. No amount of tweaking or magnification would give me a plate.PS that's a helmet mounted 808 D Lens

I guess the moment before impact is all ya need?

Anyway, what I'm thinking is a modified camera plus an IR spotlight, to kinda replicate this type of thing:

Could have 1 x Visual spectrum spotlight (many good ones around) plus 1 x IR spotlight (similar price at Jaycar) plus the modified night camera with the IR blocker removed, and a visible spectrum filter in for the benefit of the IR?

Dunno, anyway still learning about this stuff. Will let y'all know how it goes.

Timeonabike wrote:Anyone out there tried using an IR camera or modified video camera for picking up number plates at night?Looks like it'd be pretty easy to modify one, but not sure if the results would be worth it?

I can see myself destroying a cheap and nasty one to find out.

Cheers

Time

I wouldn't bother. Even expensive CCTV cameras employing IR can only see basic figures and faces up to 10m. Add a reflective surface and you'll find it incredibly hard to decipher characters on the plate. You would require a serious sensor and cheap portable cameras just won't cope.

It'll pick the car up though.

But with the 808 #16 A? Lens. you might get one frame just before impact. Juggled brightness and contrast in VLC.Just kidding, pulled up behind me at the lights. Yes I actually stopped.This is the same vehicle going past after the lights. Add movement and you don't have a hope. No amount of tweaking or magnification would give me a plate.PS that's a helmet mounted 808 D Lens

darkelf921 wrote:[quote="Summernight"]Glad the replacement has finally come for you, DarkElf. I've been very pleased with my replacement with no glitches to date. When received it I immediately did the manual update and fixed my settings to how I wanted it.

My replacement has also worked flawlessly. I also did the update straight away.

I spoke too soon. It may have charging problems as well <sigh>

That's not good.

What exactly seems to be wrong with it this time?I've had one freeze since I got the replacement camera. Also, the battery time doesn't seem to correctly reflect the actual amount of time left in the camera, although I've attached the battery bacpac now so don't have to fuss over it as much.[/quote]

For some reason it's not charging properly. Instead of a solid red light, it flashes. However if I remove the battery (and put it back in again) before I charge, then it charges properly. Other than that, it is working fine. I have been using the bacpac battery but noticing lots of charge left. So the last couple of days I removed the bacpac. Both rides were about an hour and a half each and both times it only used up about a third of the charge. So I'll keep using it on long rides without the bacpac and just get in the habit of resetting the battery before I charge.

The two 808 #16s I bought on the 2nd of April were received today. I didn't realise how small the battery pack would be. Great service from ebay seller eletoponline365 and he even sent me an email telling me where to find the firmware updates and attached the user manual.

Now to work out how to waterproof them and create a housing that attaches to the bike and helmet... Time to trawl through this thread's many pages again.

Summernight wrote:The two 808 #16s I bought on the 2nd of April were received today. I didn't realise how small the battery pack would be. Great service from ebay seller eletoponline365 and he even sent me an email telling me where to find the firmware updates and attached the user manual.

Now to work out how to waterproof them and create a housing that attaches to the bike and helmet... Time to trawl through this thread's many pages again.

This is a diy waterproof case.and the first several posts herewill give you most of the info you need

Summernight wrote:The two 808 #16s I bought on the 2nd of April were received today. I didn't realise how small the battery pack would be. Great service from ebay seller eletoponline365 and he even sent me an email telling me where to find the firmware updates and attached the user manual.

Now to work out how to waterproof them and create a housing that attaches to the bike and helmet... Time to trawl through this thread's many pages again.

This is a diy waterproof case.and the first several posts herewill give you most of the info you need

Now that is what I call service!!! Saved me the hassle of reading through the pages of this thread and that forum. Very much appreciated.

I can't believe how simple it was to install the updates onto the camera using that interface. That was sooooo much easier than doing the firmware updates on the GoPro. I'm liking this camera already and I haven't even started using it!

My GoPro Hero 3 Black is on the way to GoPro at the moment for warranty replacement. It developed a fault where it would freeze when turning on if it was hot ie. if it had been recording and the battery needed to be swapped. It would take 10+ attempts and a cooldown of a couple of minutes to start again. The new V2.37 firmware (and previously V2.36 beta) that I was advised to install as part of the troubleshooting didn't make a difference.

Glad I have the Hero 3 White that is rock solid for recording my rides in the meantime.

Boognoss wrote:My GoPro Hero 3 Black is on the way to GoPro at the moment for warranty replacement. It developed a fault where it would freeze when turning on if it was hot ie. if it had been recording and the battery needed to be swapped. It would take 10+ attempts and a cooldown of a couple of minutes to start again. The new V2.37 firmware (and previously V2.36 beta) that I was advised to install as part of the troubleshooting didn't make a difference.

Glad I have the Hero 3 White that is rock solid for recording my rides in the meantime.

Gah, what is with the Black Edition? Hope you get a good, working replacement quickly.

Boognoss wrote:My GoPro Hero 3 Black is on the way to GoPro at the moment for warranty replacement. It developed a fault where it would freeze when turning on if it was hot ie. if it had been recording and the battery needed to be swapped. It would take 10+ attempts and a cooldown of a couple of minutes to start again. The new V2.37 firmware (and previously V2.36 beta) that I was advised to install as part of the troubleshooting didn't make a difference.

Glad I have the Hero 3 White that is rock solid for recording my rides in the meantime.

Gah, what is with the Black Edition? Hope you get a good, working replacement quickly.

Too new (ie released before they should have been)? It was one of the early pre-orders that Highly Tuned Athletes had in December that I bought it in so it was pretty early in the piece for the Black edition. Anyway, I'm glad it's being replaced hopefully with a perfect one.

Summernight wrote:I hope yours is replaced with a perfect one. My replacement hasn't been perfect although it has been better than the last one and it hasn't been bad enough to need another warranty query. Yet.

Hmmmm, hopefully newer hardware will actually be resolved with new firmware releases rather than you having dud hardware again. Fingers crossed for me too....

@Summernight, this is a lot shakier than your most recent vid, but no mount rattles. Hopefully that gives you confidence the electrical tape "fix" works.

The overlaid music is blocking the comparison. Unless you were riding with a boombox?

Nah, that's the earphones.

Sorry about that, found a freeby tune that seemed kinda OK and which matched the vid length sorta...

Slide the bayonet clip out of the chest mount and put the tape on the base of the socket. With a sharp hobby knife, cut the tape either side of the centre spine so that the spine sticks through, and remove cut tape sliver. You want the tape to pack up the base ever so slighly. One layer may do it, I used two to be extra sure but it does require some force to extract.

First impression out of the box is they are very very plasticy and if I let the kids near them they will last between 10 and 30seconds before an arm is broken off.

Operation couldn't be easier, there are 2 buttons on the left arm and one is on off, the other is short push photo, long push start to record.

When power is on there is a red light at the front of the left arm that you can sort of see with your peripheral vision telling you it is in standby. When you take a photo the red led flashes blue for a moment. If you long press (2s) the 2nd button you start video recording and the blue led flashes indicating recording.

The controls are easy to use, the light you can sort of see. If you are stopped it is easy to notice, on the go it isn't so obvious.

I wouldn't be using it for photos for anything but an emergency as you can't really tell EXACTLY were it is pointing and the photo quality is pretty crap (1280x1024).

The quality of the sunglasses is about what you expect from a $5 pair bought from the markets. If this distresses you then they aren't for you (but what are you looking at $30 video sunnies for then?)

The sound may be OK if you are walking or indoors or similar but as soon as you move it is mostly about wind noise.

I attempted to take 3 videos - each one a bit longer. First was about 2 minutes and no issues, 2nd was about 4 minutes no issues and the 3rd was probably 5-6 minutes and everything froze. I don't know if it was beginners luck or what but the blue LED turned half blue, half red and the glasses were unresponsive - they would not turn off, would not start or stop a video or take a photos. In the end I reset them with a pin in the reset hole but that was when I got home.

I have no idea if this is an ongoing issue, a random glitch or what but can report in after a few more uses as to if it is an ongoing problem.

Below is a sample video moving from dappled light under trees to full sun and then through a tunnel. All was done on a mountain bike so gives you and idea of how steady they are with normal use. There is not post processing on this file at all, it is as it came. The colours are pretty intense but the video does randomly freeze for a short time, I am guessing that is writing from memory buffer to SD card or something that causes this.

Moving the head around gives horrible panning distortion.

In summary, at $30 I think they are a fine. You get what you pay for. I will use them with some mountain biking to capture some trails I ride and probably out with the kids riding etc. May try them in the snow but will probably stick with Goggles for that.

If quality is your number one consideration then no, but at $30 I suspect I will easily get my monies worth out of them.

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